Lite and Heart Records 



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BY 

iEICHAED MAEVIH. 



" If I should die to-night, 
" My friends would call to mind, with lingering thought, 
" Some kindly deed the icy hand \$\ wrought ; 
" Some gentle words the frozen lips had said ; 
" Errands on which the willing feet had sped : 
" The memory of my selfishness and pride, 
" My hasty words would all be laid aside." 

APR 18 1887 

1887. 

St. Paul, Minn. 



,r\7 



a 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1887, by 

RICHARD MARVIN, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



SAINT PAUL: 

D. RAMALEY & SON, PRINTF-KS, 

GLOBE BUILDING. 



PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR. 



This volume is published without any expectation 
that it will find its way to other than a very lim- 
ited circle of readers. Written at intervals, during 
the past fifty-live years, without thought of their 
publication collectively, many of them would have 
been forgotten but for the interest felt by those who 
had preserved them for the sake of the writer. It 
was not until recently that the idea of publication 
suggested itself, and then only with the thought 
that it might be the means, in after years, of bring- 
ing before his children's children the memory and 
life associations of one, the closing years of whose 
life they would alone remember. 

Intended chiefly as a souvenir, the author will be 
content that his production shall be read by the few : 
should it, however, be read more extensively than 
he anticipates, the shock of the surprise would prob- 
ably not render him incapable of receiving it as a 
pleasure. Conscious as the writer is of his inability 
to reach even his own ideal, and with enough self- 
criticism to anticipate failure, the mere accident of 
success would probably fail to make him less self- 
critical. 



The verses towards the end of the volume were 
written on the other side of the Atlantic, the last 
one inserted was written in the year 1832, and was 
printed, in the author's boyhood, in an annual pub- 
lished in his native town. 

Some of the earlier poems, which will be found at 
the end of the volume would have been omitted but 
for the force of associations which the author felt 
unwilling- to forego. The book contains nearly all 
the shorter poems he ever wrote, and also brief ex- 
tracts from some of greater length, the insertion of 
which as a whole would have made the volume 
larger than would have suited his purpose. 

Quite a number of those which are inserted were 
published, at the time they were written, in the local 
press, either here or on the other side of the Atlantic, 

It. MARVIN. 

St. Paul, Minn., 1W7. 



DEDICATION. 

Should an author know of one who had never 
failed in appreciation of his virtues, in charity for 
his foibles, in full partnership and sympathy, as well 
with the sorrows as the joys of his life, it would 
be most fitting that he should dedicate his work to 
such an one: Therefore would I, as I do, dedicate 
this little volume, the record of much that we have 
known and felt in common, to my best and truest 
earthly friend, the companion and wife of my youth, 

The Companion and Wife of My Age. 



INDEX. 



Abide with Thee ? - 110 

A Dream ------ 25 

A Landscape ------ 68 

A Memory of Childhood - 94 

A Minnesota Snnset ----- 49 

An Appeal ------ 137 

An Autumn Scene - - - - -132 

An Invocation ----- 14 

Anticipations ------ 104 

A Reminiscence ----- 66 

A Shipwreck ----- 78 

A Summer Evening - 139 

Be Patient Still - - 106 

Benlah - 108 

Charity ------ 19 

Charity's True Mission 40 

Chastened Sorrow ----- 57 

Dreamland - 33 

Fancy - - - 102 

Farewell to A. R. 117 

Gentleness ------ 29 

Half-Memories 89 

Haunts of the Druids - 70 

Human Pride ------ 97 

H. K. White 121 



INDEX. 



Life 105 

Life's Mental Spings 91 

Light at Even-tide - 88 

Lingering Memories 38 

Love -._.._ 75 

Midnight ---:.. 22 

"Neither do I Condemn Thee" - 62 

"0 ! Give me Music for my Soul Doth Faint" 58 

Oh ! Why should Jaded Memory Linger ? - 85 

"0, Look, my Son, upon yon Sign" - - IT 

On the Sudden Death of a Friend - - 126 

Phoebus and the Cloud - 60 

"Reply to a Young Lady" - - - 113 

Retrospection - - - - - 12 

Song, "I love with a Love" - - - 138 

Song of the Bells - - - - 141 

Song, "Softly float, Gentle Breezes" - - 140 

Sonnet, "Eyes oft may weep" - 35 

Sonnet, "Thy Voice was ever Sweet" 48 

Sonnet to Sleep ----- 81 

Stanzas to H. - - - - - 50" 

Stanzas, "We would not forego." 36 

Still let me Dream - 10 

The Inner Life ----- 21 

The Lark - - - - - - 76 

The late Prince Imperial - - - - 90 

The Maniac - - - 124 

The Miser ------ 98 



INDEX 



The Minstrel's Farewell - - 72 

The Nightingale ----- 86 

The Voice of Ocean - 9 

Think of Me 136 

Thomas Moore -_-._. 50 

Thoughts at Midnight - 42 

To a Friend - - - - - 112 

To an Infant at Play - 143 

To a Withered Leaf - - - - 130 

To H. 135 

To May ------ 128 

To Minnesota ----- 99 

To my Wife - -54 

To October - - 122 

To the City of St. Paul - 82 

To W: F. M. 119 

Tribute to the Rev. J. P. Morsel 1 - 30 

True Nobility - 64 

Twain and Yet One - 34 

Uncharity - 92 

Unrest ... - 63 

Weariness - - - - - - 53 

We'll Dwell with the Past - 115 

W r e're Growing Old - 28 

"What's in a Name" - - - 44 

Womanly Woman - - - - 16 

Woman's Charity ----- 32 

Written for H. - - - - - 134 

Written on the Atlantic - - - - 100 

Written on the Mississippi - 69 





ana g*fc£art pf^eoFdlp, 



THE VOICE OF OCEAN. 



I hear the voice of ocean as when first 

It reached my soul, and welcomed new-born 
thought, 

Swathing it with a harmony untaught 
In dreams that oft had left my soul athirst; 

New phase of gladness to my life was brought 
With the full chords which on my senses burst! 

And so I hear the rhythm of men's dreams, 

From the deep sea of melody, which seems 
To girdle earth with waves of living son erf 

I keep the softened echoes in my soul! 
I hear their living murmurs all along 

The shore of life, as on the wavelets roll! 
Sweet undertones of thought; they glide among 

The springs of memory which my life control I 



10 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



STILL LET ME DREAM. 



Still let me dream, 
Though my worn feet may never tread 
Th' enchanted realm where, tempting, gleam 
The visions which mv feet have led ! 



What if my thought 
An ignis fatuus doth see! 
And by its wayward light hath sought 
What but a mirage proves to be? 



Still let me wear, 
Though shadowed oft by drifting cloud, 
In heart, and life, the semblance fair 
Of that to which my soul hath bow T ed ! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 11 



My dreams are mine! 
They know no commonwealth of dreams ! 
The stimulant of thought, the wine 
Of fancy's life in silence gleams ! 



Brief is life's span ! 
Briefly realities, or dreams, 
Shall here engage the thought of man ; 
Full soon shall fade— what is— what seems! 



But ne'er shall fade, 
The scenes beyond death's dreamless sleep! 
That pledge, divine, which Heaven hath made, 
Eternal truth will surely keep! 



12 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



RETROSPECTION. 



[From The Priesthills, a poem by the Author.] 

Come, Poesy ! wreathe me a chaplet of flowers 
To crown with its fragrance life's lingering hours, 
Come, bathe weary thought in the roseate light 
That tinted life's morning with hues of delight, 
And fling softened rays o'er a pathway of pain 
Where naught of my youth but its menvries remain ! 



In dreams of the day, in silence of night, 
I have lived in thy presence, and welcomed the light 
Of thy lingering glance, which, shining afar, 
First dawned on my life like a wakening star; 
Have felt thy warm breath like the promise of spring, 
And lived in the fragrance thy kisses would bring! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 13 



Lay the wreath, in its, freshness, on memory's brow 
As she mingles the past with the swift passing now, 
Till not a loved haunt 'neath the glory of day, 
Nor a star-lighted vale shall be hidden away, 
Till the heart shall grow young with the merry 

spring-time, 
And winter recede for the roses to climb! 



Now glide o'er my spirit, though distant they seem, 
The strains which inspired my first lingering dream; 
Faint now is the murmur, like distant farewell, 
Of voices whose music their welcome would tell, 
But the tones are undying, that music was rife 
In the far-away days, with the welcome of life! 



14 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



AN INVOCATION 



Come, spirit of beauty, and spirit of grace; 

Come now, on the wings of the zephyr, to me ; 
My soul's mystic longings, in vision, would trace 

The haunts ye have chosen by mountain and sea! 

Twin sisters — ubiquitous— find ye your dwelling 
Where palms tower in beauty, or wild vines enlace? 

Where dew-drop doth sparkle, or wild waves are 
swelling? 
With nature's lone atom, or measureless space? 

! swift corruscations of purified thought, 
On wings, ever viewless, now bear me away 

Till the soul's bounding pulses in peace shall be 
taught 
To rest in the light of a shadowless day ! 



Let me rise to the heights of the visions I covet, 
Inspired by the strains that my spirit shall hear; 

Looking down on the world, as I linger above it, 
From halo that girdles invisible sphere! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 15 



Sweet visions of beauty! ineffable strains! 

Your soul-stirring meaning my fancy would trace 
Come, breathe o'er the yearning that ever remains 

For earth's living harmonies, beauty and grace! 

What visions entrancing! what melodies rare 
Now dawn on the senses, and rapture the soul ! 

The music that floats on the ambient air, 
Now holds the heart's pulses in willing control ! 



Each whisper that comes as twilight doth linger 
Each sigh that is wafted from spirit unseen, 

Obeys the behest of invisible finder, 
And mingles its music with that which has been! 



16 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



WOMANLY WOMAN. 



No smile so sweet, no love so pure and deep, 

No grace so royal is, no truth so true; 

No human light of life shines through and through 
The realm of human weal, as thine, to keep 

Of human sympathy, the light aglow! 
Thine the un self that will not — may not— sleep; 

Thine the monopoly of that sweet flow 

Of prescient gentleness that well doth know 
The grief— unspoken— of a storm-tossed soul ! 
'Tis thine, with gentle touch, the Aveight to roll 

From off the pulses of a weary heart! 
Thy weakness full of strength, thy courage leal and 
true, 

And thou, unconscious of the artless art 
That gives to thee a strength man never knew ! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 11 



" look, my son, upon yon sign 
Of the Redeemer's grace divine ! " 

— Scott's Harm ion. 



Oli ! lift — my son !— thy glazing eve, 
To lifted cross, ere thou shalt die; 
This token of a Saviour nigh- 
Memento of the crucified— 
The thorn-crowned head, the wounded side, 
The sin-atoning crimson title! 



This struggle can but briefly last — 
Oh ! why should spectres of the past 
Crowd round a life that ebbs so fast? 

Still doth his soul the dregs re-taste? 
My son! why thus the moments waste? — 
And, why,— death!— thy needless haste? 



18 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



Oh! lift thine heart to heavenly shrine 
See now the pity— all divine- 
Set forth for thee in this mute sign! 

I plead — I pray — I yearn — for thee — 
The dying, pleading, Christ to see! 
One glance of faith thy soul to free ! 



With struggling hope, with grief unmanned, 

In agony of hope, I stand ! 

Oh ! lift — but once — thy dying hand ! 

Take to thy soul the love benign — 

****** 

Oh ! God of pity ! Christ divine ! 

He dies! "He dies! and makes no sign!-' 



fJFE AND HEART RECORDS, 19 



CHARITY 



Hail to the queen, of brow serene! 

Whose feet are clothed with grace, 
Whose Angers twine in their own sunshine, 

Crowns for an uncrowned race! 
Through all earth's strife, enfolds her life 

Infinitude divine! 
The priceless worth of heavenly birth 

Through all her years doth shine! 
When Eden's scene, with cloudless sheen 

Of pure and peaceful day 
Was left afar, and the morning star 

Of life had lost its ray, 
The first sad pair from dark despair 

Her presence shielded still, 
And pledged each heart till death should part, 

To share each earthly ill. 
With music still her voice doth fill 



20 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



A world of smiles and tears, 
With soothing strains for human pains, 

And hope for human fears. 
Of sight and sound, in all the round 

Of beautiful or sweet, 
Types of her face, and winning grace 

Our willing senses meet! 
A flower, its cup e'er fillet h up 

With dew of Hermon's sod! 
A censer, it swings, and fragrance flings 

Through the universe of God ! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS, 21 



THE INNER LIFE. 



Who knows the weary steps she takes 
As era vps the soul for rest? 

The giddy heights her vision scans, 
In life's unceasing quest? 

The varied hues of fancy's dream 
O'er heart-shrines that she rears? 

The rainbows she has wandered o'er, 
Arch sprung from smiles to tears? 



The gentle thoughts a grave that find 
'Neath the world's surging tide? 

The wounded hopes that die behind 
A panoply of pride? 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS, 



MIDNIGHT. 



Day, which erewhile in twilight slept, sinks now in 

deepest night; 
With folded wings in silence dies, or like some weary 

sprite, 
Steals from the scene, a shadowy thing, away from 

weal, or wreck 
Of human hearts, and human hopes that fluttered 

at its beck. 



The record of its flying hours how many hearts have 

kept ; 
To some burnt in with living fire till tears were all 

unwept ; 
To some a lightning flash of joy that darkened 

into night, 
And left the soul a blighted thing ere ceased the 

hours of light ; 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 23 



To some, a point of destiny, on which in silence, 

hung 
Magnets to tune the chords of soul or leave them 

all unstrung; 
Or "cords of love" the life to draw to truth's 

supernal spring, 
Where faith should drink and hope should plume 

an ever youthful wing. 



I know not, and I would not know, the deep and 

folded grief 
To which those vanished hours had brought fresh 

pain or sweet relief; 
What heart its own deep sorrow hi secret had to 

bear, 
Or voiced o'erfiowing anguish in accents of despair ; 



What heart had pledged the spirit's truth for prom- 
ise of a dream, 

And bartered life's true promise for that which did 
but seem ! 

For tinsel sold a birthright whose worth was all 
untold, 

And gathered to itself earth's clay instead of 
burnished gold! 



24 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



God only knows; and it is best that he alone should 

know 

Kacli moment's changeless record of joy, or speech- 
less woe! 

His heart, all infinite, doth feel the struggles of 
each heart, 

And to the soul that seeks his aid will needed 
strength impart! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 25 



A DREAM 



'Twas but a dream !— beloved one— 

A transient, baseless dream ! 
We stood, as in the years long gone, 
When youth's warm light was still our own. 



By Avon's gentle stream. 



Again, the castle's lofty tower 

Seemed lit with glowing flame, 
For golden light of sunset hour 
O'er burnished leaf, and closing flower 
With blending glory came. 



We knew not, then, what stranger hands 

Into our lives should weave 
The complex, many-colored strands, 
Whose fibres, touched by thousand wands, 

Their changeless hues should leave! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



'Twas but a dream of yester-night, 

But glowing youth was thine; 
Thy raven hair — now snowy white— 
Seemed ne'er so rich, and ne'er so bright, 
And joyous youth was mine! 



Silence, alone, that joy could tell, 

Too soon 'twas changed to pain! 
A whisper came— 'twas like a knell— 
"Take — each — a final, sad farewell, 
Ye ne'er shall meet again!" 



A flat, dread, each seemed to hear. 

That each must all resign 
That made, for both, the world so dear 
And left it now all dread and drear, 

Thy heart was crushed as mine! 



With clinging, pitying, lingering clasp 
Each held the other's heart; 

Fate seemed, like virus of the asp. 
Each life to fold in stifling grasp. 

For death alone could part! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 21 



Trembling, I woke with moaning cry, 

And scarcely could I deem 
But that our feet still lingered by 
The Avon, 'neath that sunset sky, 
. So lingered still the dream! 



'Tvvas but a dream, beloved one! 

For many a sunset fair, 
And many a joy, and grief, we've known, 
Blending our lives in heart and tone, 

Since last we lingered there! 



28 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



WE'RE GROWING OLD. 



To H. 
We're growing old, and yet we love to linger 

O'er prophecies of youth but half fulfilled ; 
To trace the touch of fancy's youthful finger, 

In life's unfolding problem little skilled. 

To plume ourselves, on lessons— our selection— 
From out the process of the living past ; 

And safer feel with amulet's protection 
Plucked from the crucible through which we passed. 

Wiser we are, but what has wisdom brought us. 

Outside the one unshrinking, tender, tie 
That held our lives long ere the world had taught us 

That all of earth besides was vanity? 



One lesson we have learned, yet. scarcely needed, 
For e'en in youth, its alpha we had known. 

That, as with time, earth's promise has receded, 
The nearer to each other we have grown. 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 29 



GENTLENESS. 



Should clashing interests disturb 
The ocean of true peace, or curb 
The current of the soul's desires, 
7 Tis brave to flash, from beacon fires, 
The light of human kindness o'er 
The ruffled waves, from either shore! 



In gentle chords life finds true life, 

The music of true being, rife 
With sweetest harmonies, that o'er 
The flush of passion blend their power, 

And leave no dissonance to fling 

A discord o'er one trembling string. 



30 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



(From the Leicester Chronicle and Leicestershire .Mercury. December, 1885.) 



AMERICAN TRIBUTE TO THE LATE REV. 
J. P. MURSELL. 



Link with the past ; how distant seems the time 
When first, thy glowing thought entranced my 
youth; 

Thy years were yet apart from manhood's prime 
When thou didst leap to wrestle for the truth! 



Prophetic were the promptings of thy soul; 

Thy vision saw, in the unfolding- years, 
The lingering clouds away in silence roll 

That floated long o'er freedom's hopes and fears. 



Thy thought was beautiful! 'twas like a stream 
Whose rapid current glowed with flashing light! 

That thought gave rainbow 7 hues till all thy theme 
Seized on the soul, and chained its young delight ! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 31 



'Twere hard to think such powers could e'er decay 
Such poetry of youth could yield to age, 

That death's cold hand, e'en in a far off day, 
Thy life would close, and fold its latest page. 



But music of thy thought doth still abide ! 

Where clear, bright distance meets the boundless 
blue, 
Our heart recalls, beyond old ocean's tide, 

Thy life, thy thought, to truth and freedom true ! 

R. Marvin. 

St. Paul, Minnesota, Nov. 22, 1885. 



LIFE A XD HEART RECORDS. 



WOMAN'S CHARITY. 



Blest hands that gather up the thorns 
Which lie in wait for human feet! 

And shrink not when the worldling scorns 
Earth's sin and agony to meet ! 



Dear gentle hands! full oft they bleed 
With the sharp thorns their fingers press, 

As pity flies to misery's need, 
And oft unblessed, still waits to bless! ' 



Sweet tones! your music oft recalls 
Life's fading light to dying eyes, 

A light which, when the shadow falls, 
Shall be rekindled in the skies! 



The gentle touch, the tender tone, 
That play in life their guileless part, 

Are strands which, through the years unknown. 
Shall surely bind to God's own heart! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS, S3 



DREAMLAND. 



A mystic realm where spirit, of caprice 

Wields silent power, in earth and changeful sky ; 
Transforms all space, and gives no reason why; 
Holds truth in bonds unseen, gives no release 
To reason's fettered limbs, while strife, and peace, 
Uncounted gain, inexplicable loss, 
Love, and unbridled hate, cross and recross, 
Or melt into each other. Now increase 

Mysterious groups, while forms that in the years 
No memory had recalled, link hands again, 

And waken laughter or unbidden tears; 
Life's bygone joys, and Oh ! its torturing pain 
Challenge, alike, the unsuspecting thought 
With shadowy mysteries, to the vision brought! 



34 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



TWAIN AND YET ONE! 



Precious anomaly ! twain yet but one ! 

Apart, yet blended, heart and hope and care, 
Each life the others, yet, each life its own, 

Each finds best life the other's life to share; 
One in faith's calm, abiding-, changeless rest; 

In each there glows the reflex of a life 
Whose heartbeats throb within the other's breast. 

Alike with husband and with cherished wife. 
One in a deep, unfailing, tender love, 

Twain only in love's object: Each prefers 
The other, for the sweetest tones which move 

An echo in his heart are born in hers! 
Each heart keeps time in harmony with each, 
One blended melody through life to teach! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 35 



SONNET. 



Eyes oft may weep when never weeps the heart, 

And oft are dry when waiting, scalding, tears 

Rush back upon the heart with grief of years 
New fever to its pulses to impart, 
While, ever and anon, shadows may start 

From nebulae of thousand shapeless fears. 
The ready tear outstrips the pace of woe, 

Till foiled and hindered in the bootless race 
To reach the heart, grief wields but feeble blow, 

And leaves no mark on soul or smiling face. 
0! ready tears! your fountains lie not deep; 

For should a transient sorrow seem to lower, 
Beneath those lids the clouds would surely creep, 

And quickly would exude the plenteous shower! 



36 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



STANZAS. 



We would not forego — we could not forget— 
The light that doth linger with memory yet; 

The warmth that we crave for life's winter, forsooth, 
We'll borrow awhile from the sunshine of youth! 



Come back with me now through the vista of years. 
We'll join in the laughter, ignoring the tears; 

We'll gather the honey, forgetting the sting, 
Outriding the pain in the pleasure 'twill bring! 



Sec the fruit in its beauty! look not to the core! 

Delaying life's gladness, this life will be o'er! 
Let the glamour of joy still cover each ill, 

And the gems that were false, be they gems to 
us still. 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 31 



What matter its foibles? What matter its truth? 

The sheen of young fancy that gilded our youth 
Still beckons us back from a winter of cares, 

Concealing the truth in the smile that she wears ! 



Ah ! memory— siren— the past is not all ! 

E'en fancy is powerless its warmth to recall; 
Glows yonder the light that shall revel in truth, 

To banish our winter, and give back our youth! 



38 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



LINGERING MEMORIES. 



Farewell, thou land of vernal showers. 

Of sunlight soft, and fairest flowers; 
Garden of vernal beauty, where, 
Art vies with art, in beauty rare, 

And ocean folds in twining arms 

The glory of thy matchless charms ! 



Farewell ! sweet stream ! — to me more dear 
Whose eyes the circling eddies there 
Had watched for many a dreamy hour, 
As childhood bowed to fancy's power — 
Than to the eyes that now may trace 
Thy gentle flow, and winding grace! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 39 



Good bye! old tower! to upper air 
I'll climb no more thy winding stair, 
From whence, in softened light, serene, 
The distant hills were dimly seen, 
As though, at midday, twilight's hour 
Had thrown a veil o'er leaf and flower! 



Good bye! old bells! the rhythmic chime 
That lured young thought to many a rhyme, 

Rings on the evening air again; 

And softly steals o'er heart and brain, 
In saddest strains, or merriest lays, 
The music, sweet, of parted days ! 



40 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



CHARITY'S TRUK MISSION. 



Love strengthens with faith the wings of the soul, 
And plumes them with hope in their flight to the goal 
Of humanity's highest and holiest aims, 
Nor ritual asks— nor creed— that her claims 
To gladden the earth with a life-giving joy, 
Should be theirs to command, or theirs to denv. 



Humility clothes her with soft, tender, light, 

As she stoops to the shadows of sorrow's dim night; 

No truth she surrenders, yet delicate art 

Guides her touch as she binds up the wounds of 

the heart; 
She waits not for password, she brings not a creed 
To the innermost core of humanity's need. 



L1EE AND HEART RECORDS. 41 



The springs of the soul that are hidden away 
From the ken of the world, from the glory of day, 
Springs latent with life, though crusted all o'er 
With mem'ries, unhealed, of many a sore, 
Will welcome her touch till mem'ries of pain 
Shall leave them to vibrate with gladness again. 



Love follows the windings of motive and thought 
Through channels oi darkness, with spectres 

distraught ; 
Through countless illusions that darken the way, 
She points, with a smile, to the deepening ray 
Of hope, ever beaming, a radiant star, 
Whose light is eternal, and shineth afar. 



42 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



THOUGHTS AT MIDNIGHT. 

(During Sickness.) 



Thought wears, to-night, the shroud of vanished 

time, 
And in that wierd habiliment, doth rob 
The life of fancy of each sentient throb 
Which, disenthralled, to wonted heights might 

climb ! 



0! possibilities! ye once seemed worth. 
For the dim future, all the soul's warm strife! 
Why, from her grasp, falls now, the gauge of life? 
Why, from her vision, shrinks the dream of earth? 



Why mingles cypress where the heart would twine 
A living wreath to crown some future day? 
Why pales the latent light, whose peaceful ray 
With life's last twilight might serenely shine? 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 43 



Death wears no frown ; 'twill give true life, prolonged 
Where earth's best fellowship, a lengthened chain. 
Shall wind its links around the soul a«;ain 
As she shall stand, this lesser life, beyond ! 



The gauge of life will then be her's again, 

And strength of youth shall know no waning there ; 

Immortal solvent; the pure atmosphere 

Will clear each doubt, and cure each mental pain ! 



Earth's shadows, then, will be so far aw T ay, 
These sleepless midnights will be to the scene 
Of memory's range, as though they had not been. 
And life's best thoughts shall live in cloudless day! 



44 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



WHAT'S IN A NAME." 



"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." 

— Romeo and Julie 1 . 

Shakespeare! for once, thy living muse could miss 
The soft, sweat fragrance of the sacred kiss ! 
Sweet Juliet, thy maiden archness once 
Missed the true mark, and Juliet was a dunce! 
By many a joy that marked the far-off days 
When these feet trod the rose-environed ways 
Which led from Learn to Avon, thence by walls 
Of Warwick's lordly towers, whence wierdly falls 
On fancy's ear, the voice of bygone years 
That spake in tumult wild to human fears; 
By Lucy's ancient halls, where Stratford's fane 
First met my sight, by memories that gain 
The mastery of thought, still shaft thou claim, 
Sweet rose! the music of thy changeless name! 
Ere Waller sang, or Moore twined his last rose, 
Or breathed in music where the south wind blows. 
Ere Romeo loved, or Avon's bard was born, 
Thy fragrance bathed the wings of dewv morn, 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 45 



And thy dear name, symbol of maiden's truth, 
Was whispered in the waking dreams of youth ! 
Sweeter than sensuous fragrance that exhales 
From hedgerows green which intersect the vales 
Whose lines of beauty— skirting Avon's stream- 
Fling forth bird notes like music in a dream ; 
Richer than perfume lingering o'er the fields 
Of living roses — as the orient yields 
Her wealth of prisoned sweetness for a world 
Where fashion reigns, bejeweled and im pearled — 
Come the sweet mem'ries of the parted years, 
Drifted through phases— oft— of hopes and fears, 
And bring dear names with cherished thoughts 

along, 
Enshrined in deathless glow of poet's song; 
Or wrapped in shadow, in the sombre shroud 
Of some lone heart amidst a living crowd ! 
Sweet rose — sweet name — what inem'ries round thee 

play, 
Moving to music of some far-off day! 
Ages agone, thou wast a petted child, 
A cherished gem with Chaucer's undeflled ! 
Come now, like incense, to the soul's pure dream, 
And prompt its worship of some sacred stream 
Where loved mementos on its current glide 
And soothe with memory's strains life's restless tide! 
Still dost thou wake the perfume of the years, 
Bathed with their sunshine, or their dewy tears; 



46 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



Invoking still what meets the soul's deep sense 
Of fragrance and of music ; bearing hence 
Athwart each phase of life, the soul, o'ercast 
With yearning wish to fellowship the past. 
Association! power that blends, at will, 
Life's lingering joys in one sweet circle still; 
Loose not a link that binds each joy to joy, 
Retouch with present life the long gone by! 
Let not a tendril shrink from firm embrace 
As the soul's chords with all the past enlace! 
Leave out no name, no memory that can call 
From out the shadows that must surely fall 
Around each life— by touch of sorrow taught— 
The yearning fellowship of treasured thought! 
Sweet rose! thou gem of poet's tender theme, 
Brief is thy stay, as Angel's in a dream ! 
The lavish fragrance of thy brief career 
Exhausts thy life, and ends its beauty fair; 
Too fair to linger when the orb of clay 
In highest heaven pursues his burning way, 
When Sirius — brightest star — the sun obeys, 
To rise, or set, with his imperious rays. 
Yet while thy lingering beauty seems to die, 
A living fragrance doth salute the sky, 
And still, with perfume of the dying flower, 
Thy name shall triumph o'er the fateful hour; 
This, with the melody of memory's strain 
Shall blend its cherished resonance again; 



LIFE AND HEART PfiCORbS. 41 



That, on the breeze its sweetness still shall pour 
When glowing tints shall meet the eye no more! 
Still shall the May-birds flush the fitful breeze 
With music drifted o'er the daisied leas, 
When past shall be the blossom of thy life, 
And Flora's reign shall yield to wintry strife, 
For then shall fancy waft thy fragrance still, 
From perfumed valley, o'er the breeze-swept hill, 
Still, foliage dense shall deepen on the scene, 
And June's warm touch impart a deeper green ; 
Thy colours, still, shall bring their gay relief 
To moss-clad stem, to graceful taper leaf; 
Still shalt thou blush as dewy morn appears 
To meet thy waking with her dewy tears, 
And as thou wakest when the glowing sun 
Peeps o'er the misty hills, enswathed in dun, 
Thy voiceless petals shall unfold, and claim 
The soft, sweet cadence of thy changeless name ! 



4$ LIFE Atii) HEABT tiECOKlhS. 



SONNET. 



Thy voice was over sweet! When first its tone 
Fell on my ear, 'twas prelude to a song 
Whose music, since, has cheered my life along 

The many changing years that we have known! 

Like harp of old its tender chords, alone, 
Drove back the waiting shadows that were rife 
To fold their pinions round a saddened life! 

Absent from thee, echo was still my own, 
And from the past I heard sweet tones, that o'er 

My spirit's eager thought, at call, would come 
To live in music at my heart's dec]) core; 

And with it came the light of home — sweet home — 
A radiant arch athwart the deep blue sea, 
O'er which my steadfast thought e'er came to thee! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 49 



A MINNESOTA SUNSET. 



The rainbow hath its wealth of gorgeous hues 

Kissed into beauty by the glowing sun; 

Each tint, in soft gradation melting, glides 

Into the hues above, beneath ; each tint and shade 

The sun has stereotyped in nature's tears, 

Since the first arch of promise spanned the heavens, 

And smiled in beauty on a waking world. 

Not thus the mingling light and shade that give 

Such weird, fantastic shapes to yonder clouds, 

And drape with changing hues the glowing skyj 

Eye, heart, and soul catch the unfolding forms 

Of beauty's true, unmeasured, artless art; 

The tint and foam of ocean here are seen, 

And the soft amber of the dying woods. 

There, scattered far and wide, are tints that dwell 

With sheen of sunshine, or with lurid storm, 

Shadow of cavern deep, and light that dwells 

With the lone silence of the mountain peak. 



50 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



Here, neutral tints, flecking the golden zones 
Which span majestic forms, give contrasts rare; 
There, cavalcades with glory in their train, 
Move on in path of strange, unearthly light ! 
Anon— the colors blend, and shade with shade, 
On fleec t v canvas of the sleeping clouds, 
Gather new combinations, contrasts rare, 
Pictures beyond the range of human art, 
Outlined with sheen of silver or of gold. 
What strange transitions — poetry of change- 
Quicken the pulse with sense of beauty's power ! 
What transmutations, subtle, cheat the sight 
With movements graceful as when forms of light 
Wait on our dreams, or countless harmonies 
Whose movements time the pulses of the soul ! 
And now the eye — entranced — fears every change! 
Lest chaos should dissolve the vision rare, 
Yet finds a rarer beauty in the change. 
The mountain masses, in each glowing phase, 
Seem still at beck of beauty's hidden power, 
Which moulds their forms to shapes of beauty still! 
Now doth the artist sun, beneath the clouds, 
Behind the ramparts of earth's fading hills, 
Scan from his bed the glory he has given 
To vapour mountains swathed with burnished gold, 
And purpling bases of dissolving hills ! 
Anon, the rifts that pierce their crumbling sides, 
With arches crowned, reveal new scenes beyond, 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 51 



Stretches of azure on to regions where, 
In dim perspective, range celestial hills! 
'Tis more than joy, 'tis ecstacy that waits 
On this broad panorama of the sky ; 
Joy un defined, still waiting for a sense 
Of beauty which 'outstrips its present ken ; 
A longiug, aching, wish, the joy to share 
Of vision, with the world ! 

But twilight comes! 
These glorious forms must fade! The evening star, 
Close by the crescent moon, the signal gives 
Which breaks the spell for earth and changing sky ! 
Amber and crimson, purple, azure, gold, 
Put off their robes of light, and cease to glow 
As night enfolds them with her shadowy wing! 



52 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



THOMAS MOORE. 



[Written on the Centenary of his birth— May 28, 1879.] 

O! harp! that once with music filled 

A world of glowing thought. 
Whose sadness hushed, whose numbers thrilled 

As grief or gladness taught! 



Blent with thy strains, in beauty seemed 
The flowers of earth to twine, 

The orient star more brightly beamed 
With orison of thine! 



The glance of beauty, 'neath thy spell, 

More beautiful became 
As twilight shadows softly fell 

To shield a new-born flame! 



In every clime thy strains could wake 
The charm of halcyon hours, 

As heart would crave its thirst to slake 
From dew of earth-born flowers ! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 53 



WEARINESS. 



My soul craves rest, the crucible 

Through which life's weary thought has passed, 
Has drained the heart, yet left it full 

Of memories that with life shall last! 



Thought's scanty harvest seems to laugh 
At jaded strength, that scarce can wield 

A worn-out sickle o'er the half 
Decaying fruit of life's worn field! 

And yet, in patience, I would bear 
This conscious sense of life's decay ; 

My sadness, let to-morrow wear, 
Come, rest, my weary heart, to-day! 



54 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



TO MY WIFE. 



Once more that strain, which oft at even 

Our voices blended o'er the sea, 
Ere Time's unshrinking hand had given 

His seal of pain to you and me ! 

Life's autumn, o'er our pathway stealing, 
A lengthened train of shadows brings, 

And yet thine heart, with spring-time feeling, 
A sunbeam o'er each shadow flings! 

''Our web of life how strangely woven," 
Our chords of sonl how oft unstrung; 

The world's caprice how strangely proven 
To prove our hearts but only one! 



LIFE AND BEAUT RECORDS. 55 



The flowers which in our pathway springing, 
Gave back the hue of love's first dream, 

Are radiant as when youth was flinging 
Its fancies wild oer wood and stream! 

What hopes, since then, have sunk in sadness ! 

What voices hushed in dreamless sleep! 
W T hat tones that thrilled each heart with gladness 

Are memories now, each heart must keep! 



'Twere hard to tell which, most had blended 
Our lives in one, life's joy or pain, 

And which were best, the journey ended, 
Or all the past to live again! 



56 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



STANZAS TO H 



It could not be that you and I, 
When each had passed the silent sea, 

Should meet no more for aye and aye, 
In heart-communion true and free! 



Earth's prestige would not then be gone, 
Though past the touch of earthly fears! 

Our lives would — then — as now — be one, 
Though we had lived ten thousand years! 



One path, our footsteps still would own, 
One conscious thought of presence near 

Would still recall each look and tone 
That blessed for us an earthly sphere! 

It could not be for me and you, 
That life, beyond this life terrene, 

Should all the warp and woof undo 
Of lives so linked as our's had been! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



CHASTENED SORROW. 



The cant that calls it sin to grieve, 
Comes but from hearts that could not know 

Aught of the bitter storms that leave, 
In breaking hearts, the tracks of woe! 



'Tis brave to bear life's darkest ills; 

'Tis weak and fruitless to complain; 
But stoic pride the reason chills, 

It marks no line 'twixt joy and pain ! 

The chastened vision still will gaze 
On life's sad maze, in lonely hours, 

To mark its scenes through sorrow's haze, 
And lingering count its faded flowers! 



58 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



'Oh! give me music for my soul doth faint." 

— H. K. White. 



Oh! to revel in music! to feel that each strain 
Holds with fetters of silver the heart and the brain ! 
The languor, the spell, the triumph of song 
Subdues, and encircles, and bears us along. 
Enchantress! alluring with sweetness and grace, 
Thou leadest the soul into measureless space! 

Thou plead est with mem'ry her wealth to unfold, 

Thou gildest the future with purified gold ; 

O'er hope thou art regnant, at call she comes nigh. 

And her kiss warms thy breath with rapture of joy, 

And many an hour of unrest she atones 

As the soul floats in languor of silvery tones. 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 59 



The heart is thy creature and bows to thy sway, 
'Tis wide as its passions, more potent than they; 
Each thought, every sense, each tremulous nerve 
Is at beck of the power thou hast yet in reserve; 
New realms thou dost conquer in regions that rise 
As Alp beyond Alp, to the heights of the skies. 

In heights and in depths, in breadths yet unknown, 
The scope of true being, the spirit's pure tone 
Shall cope with the highest, the truest in art, 
And melody's acme shall rapture the heart, 
When the spirit shall spurn each vestige of clay, 
And wing with its music the limitless day! 



60 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



PHCEBIIS AND THE CLOUD. 



The cloud was coquetting, at close of the day, 

(And blushing a rosy red) 
With her spouse the sun, who was brimming with fun 

Ere he went to his ocean bed. 



And soft was her gaze on his beautiful rays 
As near them her form would linger, 

Recalling the days when her sweet winning ways 
Had twined him around her finger. 



'Twas plain from afar, that a nice coup (Tetnt 

Awaited the jolly old fellow, 
'Twas so like her a request to prefer 

Just when he was nice and mellow. 



So blissful was he, so brimming with glee, 

So jolly, and so untroubled, 
She thought it was best her intended request 

Should be very nearly doubled. 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 61 



< )f what the sun said I never have read, 
He snubbed her, it doubtless appears, 

For, with downcast eye, she darkened the sky 
And watered the earth with tears! 



Mo! lio-o!— said he, ha-ha! with glee— 

I know just what to do ! 
As sure as I'm bright, I'll make it all right 

In less than a minute or tw T o ! 



80 he lessened his rays, and he softened his gaze, 

She knew there was something in it, 
For her brow became bright, and her smile was all 
right 

In something less than a minute. 

Then he crowned her- caprice with a rainbow of 
peace, 

And he so adjusted his shining 
As to touch each fold of her garment with gold, 

And give it a silver lining! 



62 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



NEITHER DO I CONDEMN THEE." 



Shrinking with guilt and shame, she stands before 

Those only, sinless eyes that can explore 
The shadows of her deep, remorseful shame! 

With tear-blind eyes, she weeps for what, no more, 
Till her crushed soul, like Phoenix from the flame, 

Has risen to life divine, its rays shall pour 
Around the shadow of her blighted name! 

Ah ! stricken soul ! those human eyes — divine- 
Sad with the shadow of a coming hour, 
Condemn thee not, and rising evermore 

Above thy shame, high o'er thy surging fears, 

Are heard the words that through the coming years 
Shall soothe the anguish at thy heart's deep core, 
"Neither do I condemn thee, sin no more!" 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 63 



UNREST. 



Wrap thou the thought of thine aspiring- soul 
In sunlit visions such as erst had met 
Thy day of dreams, before its sun had set; 

Let fanc3 T gather power till she could roll 
In spheres remote, a thousand worlds beset 

With rays of light all seeking for a goal — 
The shadow of unrest, a shapeless thing, 
Would challenge thy new universe, and fling 

A baleful forecast o'er each world of light; 
O'er ocean's breadth to mountain peak 'twould 
bring 

A sad foreshadowing of coming night 
Around the soul relentlessly to cling! 

That soul adrift — unmoored from God's own peace — 

Her ceaseless cry, "Where shall this unrest cease?" 



64 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



TRUE NOBILITY. 



[From The Priesthills.] 

Full oft, on escutcheon, may heraldry trace 
The pride of the present in by-gone disgrace; 
While the blush of the past o'er its folly and crime 
Is lost in the boast of a recreant time, 
And manhood will flush, and kindles the eye 
As the pageant of ancestry ambulates by! 



Ambition's a dream that will open the gate 

Of the spirit's unrest to whispers of fate ; 

Inflated with possible chance, it would bear 

Impossible burdens while feeding on air ; 

'Twill borrow a steed in high places to ride, 

And starve the soul's truth on fragments of pride ! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 65 



Who feeds his soul's pride and builds it a throne 
On the far-away deeds which his fathers had done, 
Let him back to the graves where they moulder to 

dust, 
And ask of their shades were they gentle and just? 
Or foul were the sins that crouched at their door, 
And red their right hands with the blood of the 

poor ? 



Who claims right divine, let him shrink from the 

light 
Of the world's later dawn, into shadowy night 
Of the crucial years when men were but things, 
The playthings of tyrants, the missiles of kings, 
AVhen souls were emasculate, woven each will 
With the web of the stronger, his fate to fulfill! 

'Tis Heaven gives the manhood that still may 

redeem, 
In every sphere, the enthusiast's dream, 
Where grandeur of truth, where sweetness of soul 
Encircle the heart with a living control, 
There, man, moved to highest and holiest aims, 
The soul's truest crest of nobility claims! 



66 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



A REMINISCENCE. 



[From The Peiesthills.] 



Full oft, 'neath the shadow of turret and tower, 
When moonbeams would mingle with twilight's dim 

hour, 
And shadows, indefinite, faintly would throw 
Their indistinct forms o'er the tablets below, 
He, lingering, mused with vague sense of fear, 
Yet drawn by the fancies that beckoned him there. 



The massive gray tower, and the tapering spire 

In the moonlight seemed yet higher and higher, 

And the silent ghosts of the parted years, 

To music unheard by mortal ears, 

Seemed to dance in and out of the old gray walls. 

No echo to follow their mystic footfalls. 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 67 



Then as musical peal from the old eight bells 
Laid hold of young thought with their rhythmic 

swells, 
He dreamed of the knights of the olden years 
Of whom he had read, and the mail-clad peers, 
And the priests of the medieval time 
Invoked by the tones of the olden chime. 

What tones are so sweet as the music of bells 
On streamlet descending adown the green dells? 
What feast of the senses can ever compare 
With the music they fling on the tremulous air? 
Not visions of hasheesh, with changeful control, 
In murmurs so sweet could envelope the soul! 

Away from the present the young heart will drift 
On wavelets of sound, as they changef Lilly lift 
Their soul-melting murmurs to rapture the ear, 
Then ever move on in their vibrant career 
Like presence of angels that breathe as they pass, 
The strains of the spheres, too briefly, alas! 



68 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



A LANDSCAPE. 



[From The Priesthills.] 

The landscape looks up to the smile of the sky, 
Reflecting the glory till cloudlets pass by, 
The changeable pictures o'er sunbeams that float, 
Or borrow new beauty at distance remote; 
With movement capricious, they puzzle the gaze, 
First borrow the glory, then darken the rays. 

Earth mirrors the cloud on meadow's deep grass 
While suubeams are waiting for shadow to pass; 
How weirdly it spreads half over yon space, 
With beauty of motion, and leisure of grace; 
How glides its soft movement o'er meadow and 

flood, 
Till merged in the shadow that broods in the wood ! 

Sweet landscape of beauty! how calmly serene, 
In soft light, or shadow, thy valleys are seen! 
How rounded in beauty each verdure-clad swell 
AVhere the sunbeam's soft smile on the upland may 

dwell, 
And girdling each vista with hovering shade, 
The wood in the distance enfoldeth the glade. 



life And heart records. m 



WRITTEN ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



The moonlit river rolls its tide- 
Majestic— to the sea ; 

A thousand tints of beauty touch 
Its waters deep and free! 

A thousand charms in earth, and sky. 

Are here to lure the heart, 
And yet, to thee, in thought I come, 

And linger where thou art! 

The light of youth has passed away, 
Its day-dreams are no more, 

But love has deepened with the tide 
That swept those day-dreams o'er! 

A thousand charms, in earth and sky, 

Are here to lure the heart, 
And yet, to thee, in thought, I come 

And linger where thou art! 



70 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



HAUNTS OF THE DRUIDS. 



[From The Priesthills.] 
Yonder stretch fche long vistas of Old Roman Road, 
Links binding the present to forest abode 
Of mystical Druids, whose shadowy rites 
With blood flushed the day, with horror the nights ; 
Where sorceress dwelt in forest's deep glade. 
And toyed with the visions her frenzy had made. 



Where the mistletoe clung to the monarch of trees, 

And weird incantations from wild devotees 

Rose high in the air, invoking a power 

That should hold, as with iron, the slaves of the 

hour, 
There altar-flames glowed to the zenith of sky 
From fires that had lighted the ages gone by! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 11 



From altars, unquenched by day or by night, 
Where the sun of the orient gave its warm light, 
Was brought sacred fire to flash o'er the dreams 
Of wild divination, and mingle its beams 
With the torches' wild glare at noon of the night, 
As vestal or priest flitted by in their light. 



Unyielding the system, in mystery sealed, 
To the actors themselves but dimly revealed; 
A Priesthood, they held, in the shadow of fate, 
The souls of the people, the helm of the State; 
Themselves — chained to mystery potent with power — 
The slaves of the system, yet, lords of the hour! 



12 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



THE MINSTREL'S FAREWELL. 



With light inspired, the minstrel's eye 

Seemed fixed on boundless space, 
And flush of glory, passing by, 
From the rich beauty of the sky, 
Illum'd his aged face! 

He swept with sure, yet trembling hand, 

His now responsive lyre, 
And conscious power at his command. 
Fresh tribute drew from sea and land, 

And thrilled with new desire! 



He, rising, felt a power unknown 

To all his strains before; 
New triumph dwelt with every tone, 
And visions, seen by him alone, 

Gave back the days of yore! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



Inspired, his soul had vigil kept 

With many a spirit train; 
And many an echo that had slept 
Amid the years, awaking, crept 
Into his life again ! 



And chords, forever new and strange, 

Swept o'er his swelling heart, 
And thrilled his soul as every change 
Bore him afar from earth's low range, 
And held his life apart! 



And yet, of earth his visions were, 

And yet, of earth his dream, 
With melodies whose chords could share 
The soul's far depths, and waken there 
His life's sublimest theme! 



He sang of deeds by heroes wrought 

On fierce, embattled plain, 
And o'er the mirror of his thought 
Full many a sanguined field was fought, 

And serried hosts were slain ! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



He told of chains which tyrant hands 

Forged for the hearts of men ; 
Of freedom's call in wakened lands, 
As manhood broke from iron bands, 
And spurned the galling chain ! 

Anon, inspired, the paean rose 

Of victory's holiest strain ! 
Grand was the movement that he chose 
With song of victory to close 

'Neath freedom's holy reign ! 

But why the shadows now that tell 

A change upon his brow? 
His thoughts awhile with silence dwell. 
Then wake a dirge-like long farewell, 

For death has claimed him now ! 



He rests beneath the self-same sky 

Tli at gave its glorious light 
To thoughts that lit his glowing eye, 
When each grand pageant, passing by, 
Illumed his inner sight! 



LIFE AND HEABT RECOBDS. 15 



LOVE. 



Sweetener of life's best hours, immortal love ! 

Gift of infinitude ! thou pledge of life 
That links our being to a life above, 

Untouched— untainted with earth's 'wildering strife! 

Thou givest life of angels, even here, 
The leaven of endless life this life to leaven ; 

Akin to heaven, thou mak'st this earthly sphere 
The threshold of a joy supreme in heaven! 

0! changeless truth! when youth's warm light is 
gone ! 

! love that lights the twilight calm of age ! 
Ye mingle rays that glow for age alone, 

And shine the brightest on life's latest page! 



76 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



THE LARK. 

[a memory.] 



The mist from the meadow, at morn's early hour. 
Hung a screen o'er the contrasts of leaflet and 

flower. 
And nature seemed waiting her tribute to bring 
To the warmth which had followed the sweetness of 

spring, 
As the redolent air from silence was stirred 
With lowing of kine, or song of the bird. 

The lark, as he rose from the glistening dew, 
And pressed his proud way to the limitless blue, 
Then filled the clear depths of ethereal light 
With music as sweet from his azure-crowned height, 
As now when he springs from the dew of the lawn. 
And earth and air echo the music of dawn. 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 11 



There! Watch his glad flight! What music is blent 
With day-beams that follow his spiral ascent! 
The trill that he pours on the listening air 
Seems a wavelet — unchecked — his pinions to bear 
From nadir to zenith, till lost to the view, 
Or he seems but a speck in the concave of blue! 

Still rising, he soars on the surges of song, 
Like an angel that carries glad tidings along, 
Or floats in the cadence he gives to the air 
When the ear— not the eye— knows his presence is 

there ; 
He rests— for a moment— his fluttering wins:, 
But resting, or soaring, ne'er ceases to sing! 



O! type of the man, ever true to his goal, 
Who carries the music of love in his soul, 
He rises in light, he sings as he soars, 
Or rests while the fulness of harmony pours, 
In echo, the song which has gladdened the years, 
And the name which is sweetest of Heaven to his 
ears ! 



18 LIFE AND HEART BECOBDS. 



A SHIPWRECK. 



The vessel rides on o'er a beautiful sea, 

And bends to the zephyr of morn, 
And beauty's bright smile, and laughter and glee 

With joy of the moment are born. 



Bright hopes anchor vaguely in halcyon days. 

And blend with a future unknown, 
And joy holds the present with love-lighted rays, 

And many a love-softened tone. 



Vain dreams! ye have gilded the future with joys 

That never the vision shall greet! 
Ye have pledged the heart's pulses for glittering- 
prize 

In a future it never shall meet! 



rp 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 79 



See! the sky changes darkly! the cloud, there away, 

Climbs upward and covers the sky, 
rill, wrapt in its darkness, the last gleams of day 

In darkness and muttering die! 



Now ocean flings heavenward the foam-crested wave, 

Now rises the voice of the storm ! 
' Tis prophecy wild of a billowy grave 

For many a manly form! 

Now deepens the darkness till midnight doth seem 

A grave for a desolate world! 
Its life but revealed by the lightning's fierce gleam, 

And the fiery bolts that are hurled! 

The storm-spirit hungers for victims to-night! 

She lures to the rocks by the shore! 
She lures with a shifting and treacherous light !— 

List! List to the breakers' wild roar!— 

The shriek of the winds is the music she craves, 

She worships at glittering shrine 
Where the lightning's swift gleam o'er the madly 
tossed waves 

Seems to drink of the billowy brine ! 



80 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



There's a moment's stern hush— a rift in the cloud- 
But, list to that cry of despair ! 

For the roar of the breakers is thundering' loud, 
And the prow of the vessel is there! 



Loud voices are mingling; too late the hoarse call 
Of the master! he knows that the fate 

Of his vessel is sealed on the low jagged wall 
Of rocks that are tying in wait! 



The beams of the morning in beauty shall rise, 

When past is the desolate night; 
No glimpse of its beauty shall gladden the eyes 

That so longed for its opening light! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 81 



SONNET TO SLEEP. 



Why, in thy visits to this weary earth, 
With rest for weariness, and ease for pain, 
May I not share the anodyne again 

Thy presence brings ? Angel of heavenly birth ! 

What life shall tell, in words, the priceless worth 
Of one soft touch of thine on quivering strings 

Of conscious life, shrinking from maudlin mirth 
Of midnight reveler, who reckless flings 

Back in thy face the gift for which I crave? 
How sweet the lullaby that nature sings 
When every breeze of night in music brings 

Rest, calm and quiet as the peaceful grave! 
Touch thou my soul, my springs of being steep 
In thy enfolding haze, ! gentle sleep ! 



82 LIFE AND HEART BECOBDS. 



TO THE CITY OF ST. PAUL. 



Hail ! City of Beauty ! How fair in thy youth ! 
When time, in the future, shall garner the truth, 
And write on the years the record sublime 
Of thy grandeur and wealth in the glow of thy 

prime, 
Then blent with th\* glory, from land and from sea, 
The gems of the world shall be gathered to thee! 



We knew thee, and loved thee, with dawn of the 

years 
That watched thy first growth with hopes or with 

fears ; 
Thou strong in thy future, secure in thy lot, 
Though lonely and severed, the world knew thee not, 
When the link which alone held the world to thy fate 
Was the far-reaching river that flowed at thy gate ! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 83 



The scope of thy presence now girdles the hills ; 
Thy feet touch the springs of a commerce that fills 
The breadth of thy footstool, whence life's rushing 

stream 
Hurries on like the mingled romance of a dream ; 
And far-reaching links bind thy life to a world 
Wliose life to thy vision is hourly unfurled. 



When the warm flush of autumn, the azure of sky 
And hues ever changing in contrast go by, 
What beauties link hands to the distance afar 
When day lingers still for the evening star, 
And sunset awakens, o'er woodland and stream, 
A vision unmatched by pencil or dream ! 



There, Snelling, rock-seated, looks down from her 

height 
On the mingling of waters that blend in the light; 
From winding hill-sides which the waters enfold, 
Come shadows that waver with purple and gold, 
With soft undulations, in seeming, they glide 
Till 'neath broader shadows they furtively hide. 



84 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



'Twere well, thou fair city, had nature and thee — 

In her first flush of beauty— but met to agree; 

Utility's hand, all ruthless and rude, 

'Twixt nature and thee engendered a feud; 

Yet vain was the mission of mattock and spade, 

For man failed to ruin what nature had made! 



All hail! Saintly City ! Now gather once more 
The mem'ries undimmecl of days that are o'er! 
Oh ! would that the vision, prophetic, were mine 
To number the feet that shall flock to thy shrine 
When this heart shall be silent — its hopes and its 

fears — 
And thy life shall unfold with the swift, passing 

years! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 85 



OH! WHY SHOULD JADED MEMORY LINGEK? 



Oh! why should jaded mem'ry linger 
O'er notes that only breathe of pain? 

Awaking with capricious finger, 
Those minor chords in every strain! 



Life's music was not made for sadness, 

And bird -like tones still linger there, 
Though notes which thrilled with summer gladness, 

No longer fill the ambient air! 



'Tis true, that oft, when life would borrow 
A transient bliss from by-gone hours, 

The hand will press some thorn of sorrow 
That hides beneath what once were flowers! 

And yet, earth's rosy light doth linger, 
Though clouds the sunshine cover o'er, 

And heaven still guides hope's prescient finger 
That points to bliss in sacred store! 



86 LIFE AND HEART BECOBDS. 



THE NIGHTINGALE. 
[a memory.] 



'Twas the hour when the woods and the valleys were 

still, 
For the thrush and the black-bird had silenced their 

trill, 
When, gliding serenely, the Queen of the night 
Poured, in a full tide, her silvery light, 
Then, Philomel, sweet, thy song gathered power, 
And gave to life's memory the scene and the hour. 

The strain, sad and low, which ushered thy song- 
Seemed echo of memories life's shadows among; 
But sad minor tones soon quickened to joy, 
And notes of glad triumph swept thrillingly by, 
Uplifting thy theme from sorrow's abyss, 
From pathos of grief to abandon of bliss. 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



Invisible minstrel! thy life's in thy song; 

Night yields thee thy triumphs, the moments belong 

To the glow of thy being, its pulses to sway, 

And night wears for thee the glory of day. 

Is it joy? is it grief, thou dost feel, or divine, 

As thy notes with the chords of our being entwine? 

Those woods flourish still with summer's rich bloom, 
And Philomel's notes their triumphs resume; 
Umbrageous the arches that still interlace 
In the moon's chequered light, with twining embrace; 
But the strains that sweep through that leafy 

domain 
Will never be ours but in mem'ry again! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



LIGHT AT EVEN-TIDE. 



Sweet glow of even-tide, thy promised light 

Mocks yet the cravings of impatient thought! 

The lingering shadows which my life have taught 
To find, in each sad day, so much of night. 
Come 'twixt my soul and its supreme delight. 

Light should be mine, and yet it dwells afar; 
The gentle twilight seems to wait for me, 
And I within its influence fain would be; 

But then it pales, like dim and distant star 
Whose slanting beams but measure out the space 

Of misty shadows that still intervene. 
Too oft, 'twixt longing and the promised grace, 

Faith falters, hope but lingers on the scene; 

And yet, the promise lives, in light serene! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 89 



HALF-MEMORIES. 



Some freak of thought will flash, perchance, 
A smile that lit some old-time glance 
Which, slowly fading in the years, 
Seemed quenched, for aye, perhaps in tears, 
Yet had remained mid threads of life 
A clue amidst the surging strife. 
Full oft, a tone which half reveals 
Some long lost joy, o'er mem'ry steals, 
And wrestling with the shadowy phase, 
Thought wanders in a devious maze 
Till tone and shadow both retire, 
And cheat the soul's renewed desire. 



90 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



THE LATE PRINCE IMPERIAL. 



Closed is thy hapless destiny ! 

No world will miss thy part! 
One heart, alone, shall yearn for thee, 

One childless woman's heart! 



The cruel prestige of a name 

For thee, no more shall wait, 
With treacherous kiss, or sword and flame, 

To change a nation's fate! 



The pageantry thy life had claimed 

Was thine alone in dea/bh, 
When at thy tomb that life was named 

To music's muffled breath! 

Closed is thy earthly destiny, 

Dark is thy dwelling now, 
No eagle cleaves the air for thee ! 

No crown hath pressed thy brow! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS, 91 



LIFE'S MENTAL SPRINGS. 



The springs of thought are all unseen, 

The facts that meet the world's cold gaze 
May ne'er reveal what lies between 

Those hidden springs and life's sad maze. 
What magnets may their movements change, 

What subtle waves of influence there 
May give a strength for wildest range, 
*0r still each throb in mute despair! 
The scorching heat, the chilling cold, 

That find their zones within the heart, 
In strife, may crush the fragile mold 

Of life's divine, ethereal part ! 
A heedless world, with power unseen, 

May lash to speed each pulse of life, 
Then place a thousand bars between 

The whirring wheels of mental strife! 
Without, the strife, within, the fear 

Which takes its form from that which seems, 
The agony which brings no tear, 

A phantom, false, of falser dreams! 
Reason and will, once regnant there, 

Dethroned and crushed, may yield the strife, 
And chaos reign with ruin, where 

Once moved the springs of mental life! 



92 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS, 



UNCHARITY. 



Life's music is sweet, but a tone may impart 
Strange discord to fall on the ear and the heart; 
One voice may sweep harmony out of the sphere, 
And we shrink as the discord shall startle the ear ; 
''The world's out of tune/' we inwardly cry, 
But wait not a moment to ask, "Is it I?" 



A fool may cry Raca, from self-builded throne 
Of a selfish conceit supremely his own : 
The high vantage ground he seems to attain 
May be but the reflex, that floats in his brain, 
Of loftiest heights which envy would scale, 
For envy can climb where wisdom would fail. 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 93 



As from mist that surrounds him, he ventures to 

scan, 
With Pharisee's unction, the follies of man, 
His iron-bound self-hood a mirror will hold 
That natters his foil into purified gold, 
Then turns to his neighbor, with cynical smile, 
And deepens his folly to falsehood and guile. 

We bring to the judgment-seat earth-blighted 

powers, 
And forget what a share of the folly is ours; 
Man measures his brother with vision oblique, 
And fails not to find the sins he may seek; 
To gauge human motives with conscience of earth 
May canonize evil, and crucify worth. 



The heart its own bitterness truly may know, 
Yet know not its share in the causes of woe; 
Man hides from himself in dust of the fight, 
And oft in the wrong, will deem himself right, 
Will parry, and thrust, with passion for guide, 
Till truth may fold pinion and stoop to his- pride 



94 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



A MEMORY OF CHILDHOOD. 



[From The Priesthills.] 

Come back with me now to a murmuring stream, 
The song of whose ripples doth evermore seem 
Like a gentle refrain, as it comes and it goes, 
As in June's wayward breezes, the scent of the rose; 
Above the wild eddies of life's rushing tide 
Its heart-soothing ripples in melody glide. 



The sedges that fringed it. the cresses which grew 
Here and there, in its windings of silvery hue, 
The minnows which flitted where sunbeams — too 

bright — 
Were softened by shadows that passed o'er their 

* light, 
The willow, which, drooping, yet gracefully swayed 
As 'twould dance to the music the ripples had made; 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. '■>■> 



The hawthorns that flourished in goodly array, 
Like foemen in ranks, awaiting the fray; 
With arms intertwined, with feet firmly braced. 
Still guarding the fields which their beauty had 

graced, 
While their rootlets would drink of the stream at 

their feet, 
And fling to each leaflet the life that was meet; 



These all gave the color to many a dream, 

And the world was his own, e'en its shadows would 

seem 
Like the cloudlets that hung on the edge of the sky, 
Transformed by the glance of a day-dreaming boy 
Who lived in the visions that girdled the range 
Of his life's daily thought, unconscious of change. , 



Enlaced with the stem of the clinging wild rose, 
Ere the branches of blackthorn were laden with sloes, 
The hedge with its blossoms gave welcome retreat 
In its hovering shelter to violet sweet, 
Thence a gay panorama in beauty would rise, 
And greet the soft beauty of answering skies. 

The daisies he press'd with his lingering feet 
On warm glowing upland, in shady retreat, 



96 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



On the ridge, in the furrow, where turf interlaced 
The soil which the treasures of Ceres once graced; 
Each daisy looked up, with a smile in its eve, 
And the smile in his heart was its measure of joy. 

Sweet daisy! the gem of his heart's floral dreams, 
As fancy had lingered beside the pure streams 
A\ nere the City of God in light seemed to glow, 
And the River of Life in its beauty to flow; 
Where the gems he had gathered in memory here 
He gave to the vision awaiting him there! 

Then hope was unclouded, and faith ever bright, 

And no creeping shadow had passed o'er their light; 

At eve, as he gazed on each wakening star, 

Its light was to him but a portal, afar, 

Of the City whose streets were resplendent with gold, 

The gateway to joys that could never be told ! 



Dear sensuous vision! so earthly, yet pure! 
Too mingled with earth's fading light to endure; 
So tinged with the daisy and primrose of time, 
'T would fade in the glory of heaven's true clime; 
And yet, glowing dream ! 'twould be sweet to restore 
Thy pictures of light on the measureless shore! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 91 



HUMAN PRIDE. 



Diogenes' tub failed grimly to bide 
Diogenes' soul, with its cynical pride; 
Alexander, who stood in his greatness alone, 
Whose legions swept on till the world was his own, 
Felt the glow of his pride in unbroken success, 
Had he faltered, his pride had been, nevertheless! 
Should the wisdom of earth to each of us show 
How great is our pride, and how little we know, 
Our pride might be wounded, yet still would we cling- 
To the poison concealed in its venomous sting! 
Heaven alone gives the light which can fully reveal 
The lingering pride which the heart may conceal! 



98 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS 



THE MISER. 



Say! what shall reach a gold-encysted heart 
That loves the bonds which on its fibres press; 
Stifling each gentle throb with cold duress 
Till from all human love it dwells apart? 
A key of gold alone! Nor more nor less! 
What time that potent key may be applied, 
The grating, shrieking doors shall open wide, 
Yet straightway close, fearful of Heaven's clear 

light ; 
In terror shrinking from each sunbeam bright 
That might subdue the damps which there abide. 
"Say! what shall change to gold?" that heart 

inquires, 
"The tribute friendship brings? the widow's tears? 
Love's truth, which, changeless through the changing 

years 
Remains? What art shall crown mv full desires?" 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 99 



TO MINNESOTA. 



0! State belov'd! to Truth and Freedom true! 

Land of sky-tinted streams, 'neath azure sky, 
Whose rolling prairies meet the boundless blue 

Where clear, bright distance cheats and charms 
the eye! 

Thy gem-like lakes in shores serene are shrined, 
Thy cascades, leaping in translucent sheen, 

Mock the soft murmurs of the summer wind 
With laughter echoed o'er a sylvan scene! 

Thine upland slopes, thy gentle, wood-crowned hills, 
The deep green meadows lying at their feet, 

The shady nooks, where glide thy winding rills, 
And crafty trout coquettes with angler's bait, 

All these are pictures which the heart will wear 
Midst other scenes, in years as yet unknown, 

Returning oft, in memory's dream, to share 
The beauties that are thine, and thine alone ! 



100 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



WRITTEN ON THE ATLANTIC. 
[on deck.] 



In calm, clear sky, the moon yet lingers 
To touch each crested wave with light, 

As fancy weaves, with rapid fingers, 
A waking dream for hours of night. 



To music, soft, the waves are wreathing 
Their foaming crests as on the}' roll, 

And songs of home seem softly breathing 
A cadence o'er my inmost soul. 



I hear the song that blends sweet voices, 
I hear again the soft good night; 

The gentle kiss that e'er rejoices 
And fills a mother's eye with light. 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 101 



And those who, wrapped in deepest slumbers, 
Shall wake no more to music's tone, 

Come o'er my dream, as mem'ry numbers 
The loved— the lost ones— still my own! 



Dear home! What light of love enfolds thee! 

Sweet cynosure beyond the sea, 
The space grows less that still withholds thee 

From the loue heart that dreams of thee! 



102 • LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



FANCY 



She cleaves the vibrant air, unchecked her flight 
Beyond the scope of changing day and night, 
While at her touch the universe unveils 
Its far-off treasures where earth's vision fails ; 
In spheres remote, sublime the strains she hears, 
The echoed voices of remoter spheres; 
A music that doth linger when her flight 
Turns back to earth, and clothes it with the light 
Her eyes have gathered from some radiant star 
That earth beholds not. In the light afar 
Her unseen wing has caught the hue of heaven, 
And scatters of its affluence, to leaven 
Earth's fitful shadows with a lingering light 
Gathered from radiance of each dazzling height. 
Fancy! refuge from the lash of care! 
Strength of the weak ! Hailed be thy presence where 
The world's sharp sting would plant a lingering 
pain, 

And o'er the spirit cast an earthly stain ! 
In welcome visits let me hear thee still 
Sing with the music of the bubbling rill, 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 103 



Breathe with the perfumed zephyr's murmuring 

tones 
Tli at fill the summer hours, or low sad moans 
Of autumn's closing eve; hear thee in storm sublime 
On mountain peak, where the swift lightnings climb, 
And echoes of their voices wake the heights 
Above the clouds where bird of heaven alights 
Amidst her eaglets. Here, inspired with hope, 
Let my soul rest, and feel above the scope 
Of all thy dreams, Fancy! Heaven's dear truth, 
With all its promise of immortal youth 
When time shall lay these weary limbs away 
In the enfolding clasp of earthly clay! 
Till then, more true than dreams, my life would 

share 
That light on earth no earthly dream can wear, 
And know, in God himself, the sum untold 
Of all earth's purest longings, till the gold 
Of sublunary dreams no more shall wear 
Its glamour in the rays concentered there; 
Till earth's ambitions, pride of earthly life, 
And honors vain that lend to earthly strife 
Effulgent falsehood, shrink within the glow 
Of that full light which they, alone, can know 
Who hold earth's gifts as tokens of the love 
That gladdens earth, and reigns in Heaven above! 



104 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



ANTICIPATIONS. 



Yes! the curtain must fall! each lingering farewell 
To earth and its visions, but lingers to tell 
Of scenes that shall cluster, beyond the dark sea., 
Still hoarding' the gems of life's morning for me, 
With ray undiminished, each gem to restore 
Where earth's latent shadows shall gather no more ! 



The visions that glow, the voices I hear, 
Are but echoes of welcomes awaiting me there! 
Life here is divided, thought lives in each world, 
And waits till the web of earth-life shall be furled, 
One foot with the past, the other seems pressed 
On a measureless shore of unspeakable rest! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 105 



LIFE. 



Oh! what were all life's pulses worth 

If bounded by the tomb? 
Lashed with the vain unrest of earth, 
And all unknown life's second birth, 
AVhere living youth, and fadeless worth 

Should know no hour of oloom? 



& j 



Fate's foot-ball, for life's fleeting- day, 

Oh! who would wish to be? 
The sport of chance, the surging spray 
That crests one wave of life, to lay 
Its transient bubbles all away 

In dark nonentity? 

What barque would tempt a troubled sea. 

And not a star to guide? 
Father! I still would look to thee! 
As clouds come darkening o'er my sea, 
My light of life in darkness be, 

And Pilot to preside! 



106 LIFE AND HEAET RECORDS 



BE PATIENT STILL. 



[TO H.] 



Be patient still to bear life's fitful fever; 

In faith and hope, though weary, yet abide 
Grief cannot chain the restless soul forever, 

Rest will be our's beyond the surging tide! 



We'll bear our fate. This dream will soon be over, 
Mingled with shadows we may ne'er forget, 

Through all the darkness, faith can still discover 
A goal where all soul-longings shall be met! 



Bitter the cup— and deeply we have drained it— 
Press'd to our lips, and yet our Father gave; 

Nor sin, nor shame, with agony had stained it, 
Filled and re-filled by each recurring grave! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 101 



We shared the cup; alike we felt the crushing 
Of the swift blows a Father's hand had dealt; 

Alike through heart and life we heard the rushing 
Of darkness drear and deep that could be felt ! 



Alike we'll share the rapture, and the wonder 
Alike, re-call the moments that had cleft 

Our almost worshiped human shrine asunder, 
The all to find of which we were bereft! 



108 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



BEFLAH. 



Oh when shall come the gentle eventide, 
With softened light to fill the soul with peace? 

rest of Beulah! come! with me abide, 
Abide with me till earth-born dreams shall cease! 



When shall the flutter of angelic wing, 
When shall the music of the unseen shore, 

The glow of Heaven, the strains which angels sing, 
Dawn on my sight, and steal my senses o'er? 



When shall faith see, as on bright Olivet, 
With Godhead crowned, divine, the peerless one; 

And bow in worship at his glowing feet 
To see the Father in his onlv Son? 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 109 



Standing on verge of Heaven, whose centre glows 
With light reflected to an earthly sphere, 

My soul would wait for day that ne'er should close, 
Wrapt in sweet foretaste of the glory there. 



Should earth but mingle with the heavenly joy 
The lingering shadows of an earthly clime, 

And prompt the soul, unweaned from earth, to cry 
' k Here let me build a dwelling for all time," 



Then let true faith pierce forward to its goal, 
And from the mount of glory let me see 

The full bright vision that awaits the soul 
Bevond the waters of the silent sea! 



110 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS 



ABIDE WITH THEE? 



Abide with thee! dost thou abide in me? 

Flows not in thine the life that in me dwells? 
Dost thou not draw from out that boundless sea 

Of grace and truth which of my pity tells? 



Abide with thee! when have I left thy side, 
Thou clinging, trembling suppliant, since the hour 

When for my help thy soul in anguish cried, 
To free thy heart from earth's delusive power? 



Hast thou been faithful to thy heart's first glow 
Of bounding joy, in sense of sweet release? 

Or does that heart forget each eager vow 
The lips repeated when the heart found peace? 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. Ill 



A lamb, I bore thee in my sheltering arms, 
Weary and faint, I smoothed thy painful way, 

And when beguiled thy feet the world's false charms. 
No step of mine had ever strayed from thee! 



The world has stung thee oft, till in its pain 
Thy soul has cried for boon of deathless love, 

Forgiving love, to crown thy life again, 
And peace to bless thee like a brooding dove! 



Abide with thee! shoot of a living vine 
Whose branches cover all the land and sea, 

Abide in me! my life-blood still is thine; 
Branch of this living vine, abide in me! 



112 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



TO A FRIEND. 



Life were, indeed, a boon 

From shafts of envy free; 
Thy friends are true, and friends, full soon, 

Alone will think of thee! 
Such shafts have winged their way 

To other lives than thine, 
In flights to blind the light of day, 

Or wound and make no sign! 
Thine be the faith to wait, 

The patience to be still, 
Thyself forget, and let thy fate 

Abide a Father's will! 
In faith, in hope, abide, 

In help for other's woe; 
The nearer comes the eventide 

Sooner the morn shall glow ! 
This is not real life, 

Life glows out there — away— 
(Beyond this scene of storm-cloud strife), 

Flushed with the light of day! 
The storm-cloud o'er thee lowers, 

The light will surely come; 
Of earth's unrest a few brief hours, 

And then— thy welcome home! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 113 



The following reply was sent to a young lady in 
response to her request for the author's opinion of 
an illustrated manuscript which she proposed to pub- 
lish. Her death, shortly after, prevented the con- 
summation of her intention. 

I have perused the enclosed manuscript with a good 
deal of pleasure. Though but little versed in the 
language of flowers, I think your idea in this com- 
pilation is a very good one, good in inception, and 
excellently carried out. Whether or not a publisher 
would find profit in the venture, I feel sure that the 
volume would be a very tasteful addition to the lit- 
erature which finds its way into homes of taste and 
culture. 

The great diversity yet appropriateness of the quo- 
tations reveal more than untiring research, they are 
marked by a delicate sense of fitness and an insight 
into shades of meaning which can only be known — 
because felt — by one who is in sympathy with the 
true and the beautiful. 

The task of wandering through such fields of va- 
ried beauty in the pursuit of your purpose must have 
been— though exacting upon your time — a very pleas- 
ant one, and the impressions you will have received 
will be such as^youwill enjoy long after its comple- 



114 LIFE AND HEART ttECOBDS 



tion. The aroma of the fruit and the fragrance of the 
flowers will still linger, and keep alive the pure and 
gentle sentiments which enshrine them. 

The great variety in the mottoes indicates discrim- 
ination and research, and present an invariable 
avoidance of mere platitudes. There is a sufficiency 
of sentiment to meet the taste of the lover of senti- 
ment, and yet so far is it above the merely senti- 
mental as to be strengthening to the moral and 
mental nature. 

I have been specially pleased with your avoidance 
of any familiar and hackneyed quotations, most of 
these being such as would be known only to familiar 
readers of the poets. 

Unfamiliar with technical criticism I may be but 
an imperfect critic, but have, nevertheless, been grat- 
ified by the opportunity of passing — though some- 
what rapidly — through a garden so redundant in 
beauty, and so rich in fragrance. 




0£1TI£.4 



WE'LL DWELL WITH THE PAST. 



[Leicestershire Mercury, 184-1.] 

We'll dwell with the past, for the present is teeming 
With shadows all deepened with eare! 

The light that once cheered us but faintly is 
gleaming, 
Life's devious pathway to cheer! 



WV11 dwell with the past! again would we share 
The freshness of dreams that are o'er! 

Though loved ones — how cherished — and hopes that 
were there 
May gladden our dwelling no more! 



116 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



We'll dwell with the past! oh! still would we linger 

At the deep fount of mem'ry awhile! 
We may trace in its years hope's mystical finger, 

And steal for the present a smile! 



We may lure back from thence, a hope that may 
chide 

The darkening tempests that lower, 
Some star of bright promise may dawn on life's tide, 

And gladden the future once more! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. in 



A FAREWELL TO A. R. 



Farewell ! there are hearts that will never forget thee 
Where hallowed affections are deeply enshrined, 

And memories shared that still will beset thee 
Wherever thou goest, around thee entwined! 

As wending thy steps on a far distant shore 
Where o'er thee the palm tree in beauty shall wave, 

How oft to thy spirit will memory restore 
The scenes of thy youth, and the gladness they 
gave ! 

Ah ! warm are the hopes and the prayers that shall 
bless thee 

As on thou art borne o'er the billowy sea, 
And ardent the wishes that still shall caress thee 

Where'er the last step of life's journey shall be ! 

Farewell! May God's blessing attend thee, where'er, 
In life's chequered moments, thy lot may be cast, 

In sunshine, or storm, in gladness or care, 
To thee there are hearts that will cling to the 
last! 



118 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS 



Ah! why didst thou leave the love that was 
cherished 

In hearts that Avill bound at thy coming no more ! 
Poor, recreant hope! her illusions have perished 

On the grave that is thine on a far-away shore! 

! could we have seen thee, and watched o'er thy 
pillow, 

Though frail were the effort, and powerless to save, 
How little we deemed that thy path o'er the billow 

Was bearing thee on to the shadowless grave! 

Alas! in thine anguish, no sister bent o'er thee, 
No form that beheld thee in childhood was nigh, 

And strangers were they to thy last home that bore 
thee, 
Far, far from the land where thy forefathers lie! 

Farewell! every tie of affection must sever, 
True hearts bleed afresh in this valley of pain. 

But faith scans a scene where partings shall never 
Fling over its gladness their shadows again! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 119 



TO W. F. M. 



[From the Leamington Looker On.] 

Oh ! where are the dreams that were wont to 
inspire 

When youth's sunny prospect was thine? 
When early friends blessed thee, and each new desire 

Allured thee to bow at its shrine? 



Ah! where are those dreams? and the notes, are 
they hushed, 
Whose murmurs, like autumn's wild sigh 
Have breathed in wild cadence o'er hopes that were 
crushed 
In moments forever gone by? 



120 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



Oh! say not the chords of thy soul are unstrung, 

Their murmurs all stifled with pain! 
The spell which deep anguish around them has flung 

May leave them to vibrate again! 



'Tis true thou art not as when youth's ardent fire 
First taught thy rapt spirit to glow! 

'Tis true the wild notes that have fled from thy lyre 
Of late have been mingled with woe! 



Yet, though the enchantments of early delight, 

Hope's first invocations, are o'er, 
Oh! why should'st thou deem that her pinions of 
light 

Will brood o'er thy pathway no more? 



LIFE AND HEART BECOBDS. 121 



H. K. WHITE. 



Say, White! wast thou a seraph in disguise; 
Once on the earth, now in thy native skies? 
Brief was thy stay amidst terrestrial strife, 
The soul outshone the glimmering' lamp of life; 
Thy heaven-taught muse, with ever upward wing, 
Drew themes celestial from each vibrant string! 
Now, thy immortal touch, past mortal view, 
Strikes the full chord, and wakes each theme anew; 
With added fire, with pure, celestial, glow, 
Heaven's sweetest music from thy lyre doth flow ! 
Earth-life, to thee, was purity and truth, 
Thy youth but parleyed with immortal youth ; 
And now, beyond the touch of earth's decay, 
Thy fadeless youth shall measure endless day ! 



122 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



TO OCTOBER. 



[From the Leamington Looker On.] 



Thou herald of winter! the summer's bright ray, 
In beauty, still lingers to welcome thee here; 

A smile softly blends with the beauty of day, 
And ushers thee joyfully into the year! 



The swallow is seeking a sunnier clime, 
The song-bird is drooping, and hushed is his 
strain, 

And many a beauty that hallowed the time 
Of sunlight and flowers, eometh not in thy train ; 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 123 



Yet many a charm, to the summer unknown, 

O'er nature's fair bosom thy magic will fling, 
One touch of thy pencil will rival, alone, 



0, artist sublime! all the glory of spring 



The mellow tints mantling o'er forest and grove, 
Thy hand, in its cunning, alone can impart; 

With the first chilling storms o'er the valleys that 
rove 
The colors thou gavest will surely depart! 



Too soon wilt thou pass from glories laid low, 
And beauties— thine own— with theirs shall decay, 

Chill winter must follow thy lingering glow, 
As the shadows of even the sunlight of day ! 



124 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



THE MANIAC. 



[From the Warwick Advertiser, 1838.] 

Where the dark grove enfolds its deepest shade. 
She wanders, lone, beside the gliding stream 

As the dim shades that haunt the twilight fade, 
And vanish in the moon's calm, gentle, beam. 



She leaves the world, tumultuously gay, 
Wedded to strife, and pregnant with despair, 

Silent to watch the ebbing stream of day, 
Or breathe her fancies to the listless air. 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 125 



Yet, she complains not of a world unkind. 
No hidden pang her restless lips disclose, 

The dark recesses of her wildered mind 
Conceal the spring whence all her anguish flows. 



Her soul seems dead, she envies not their joy 
Whose buoyant steps unbroken spirits tell, 

Nor wakes a smile to light that restless eye 
Where no kind tear is ever known to dwell ! 



Life's gilded joys to her but vainly call, 
With promise fair by treacherous fancy taught. 

For her lone care and every wish are all 
Concealed within the chaos of her thought! 



126 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS 



ON THE SUDDEN DEATH OF A FRIEND. 



[From the Warwick Advertiser, 1S39.] 

How transient the fluttering of hope's fairy wing! 

How fleeting her day-dream of joy! 
The glory of summer, e'en promise of spring, 

In a moment may vanish and die! 
To thee — hapless youth! — in thy cold narrow bed, 

Illusions can gather no more 
To grieve thy freed spirit so awfully sped 

From this to the measureless shore! 
Unfaded the bloom that mantled thy cheek, 

Elastic the springs of thy thought, 
Undimmed by pale sorrow the eye that could speak 

As the flash of young feeling had taught! 
But devoted each feeling, each charm that was 
bright, 

To sink in the shadowless gloom, 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 127 



For death urged — relentless — the wheels in their flight 

That hurried thee on to the tomb! 
For thee love and friendship their vigils shall keep 

Thy mem'ry to garland anew, 
And the sod shall be green where thine ashes shall 
sleep, 

As thy heart — so thy friends — shall be true! 
Thy virtues shall live, shall illumine thy fate, 

And scatter a fragrance the while, 
And near thy last dwelling religion shall wait, 

And brighten the scene with a smile! 



128 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS 



TO MAY. 



Oh! welcome, thrice welcome, thou nymph of the 
spring, 
To the vale where the streamlet leaps carelessly by, 
To the hill where the morn its first breezes shall 
bring, 
Ere they woo the gay landscape that bursts on 
the eye! 



How dear to the heart is thy young virgin smile, 
And dear the sweet tones of thy silvery voice, 

As o'er the green meads of our sea-girdled isle 
Thy breath scatters incense and bids them rejoice ! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 129 



Thy smile the gay sun-beam, thy frown the fleet 
cloud 

That dims for a moment its beautiful light, 
Thy sigh the faint zephyr that murmurs aloud, 

Then tranquilly sleeps on the bosom of night! 



How sweet is the music that falls on the ear, 
O'er valley and woodland now echoed for thee, 

And fragrant the zephyr, which, lingering here, 
Still fans thy young bosom with amorous glee 



Then welcome, sweet nymph, to this grass-covered 
height 

Where voices of song-birds with music beguile, 
To the gay panorama which raptures the sight, 

And glows with fresh beauty renewed by thy smile ! 



Beau-desart Hill, 
Henley in Arden, 1839. 



130 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



TO A WITHERED LEAF. 



[From the Warwick Advertiser.] 

Why dost thou, sear leaf, still 
Cling to thy native tree? 

This little murmuring rill 
Would bear thee far away. 

And lay thee where thy fellows lie, 

In winter's chilling: arms to die. 



Why stay— neglected— sere ? 

For time, no more, will fling 
Around the waning year 

The gentle hue of spring! 
Her light shall wake, no more, for thee, 
The charms that marked her hour of alee! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 131 



Erewhile, the shivering trees 
Flung off their bright array, 

Thou tremblest in the breeze, 
All lonely in decay; 

Now winter's bleak and chilling breath. 

Awaits thy lonely hour of death ! 



Ah! emblem thou, of life, 
When time's resistless power, 

And winter's stormy strife, 
Have chilled affection's flower, 

All sere, and lone, age yet may stay, 

And wear its friendless life awav! 



132 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



AN AUTUMN SCENE. 



[to h. r.] 

The murmur sleeps that tuned the fitful breeze, 
Borne in sad cadence down the gliding stream ; 

The sear leaves, singly, fall from silent trees, 
And linger yet, as though some wierd-like dream 

Beckoned them back to life's first genial hours, 

To summer's glowing light, and wealth of flowers. 



The storm is hushed that flashed, at noon-day hour, 
Its fitful light athwart the angry sky, 

That bade the clouds their latent torrents pour, 
And the loud thunder roar and crash on high; 

Now the swift lightnings sleep, and thunder's roar, 

In the calm light of eve, is heard no more. 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 133 



Now glides the moon athwart the brow of night, 
And pours her beams o'er nature's shadowy form 

Yet phantom shadows linger on the sight, 
Moving like spirits of the vanished storm. 

Is it that fancy lingers with the hour 

That trembled with the storm's resistless power? 



But now the heavens are bright, and earth serene 
As hopes of youth when love's sweet light is nigh 

Could those beloved eyes but share the scene, 
And gaze with mine upon this cloudless sky, 

Then earth would give to me a joy so true 

I need not gaze upon the boundless blue! 



134 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS 



WRITTEN FOR H 



[to a.] 

The joyful scenes we once could share, 
Shall absence teach us to forget? 

The light of home still lingers there, 
And lures the heart to linger yet! 

There, as we plucked affection's flower, 

We dreamed not of a parting hour! 

We dreamed alone of summer time, 
Of sunny hours, and fadeless youth, 

Wrapped nature oft in mood sublime, 
And vainly thought each mood was truth! 

'Twas all our wish, 'twas all our care, 

Those scenes of joy, for aye, to share! 

Still smiles the hope, in light serene, 

And flutters o'er a future day, 
That whispers, we shall meet again 

With gladsome hearts and feelings gay. 
Till then, the hope shall fill the breast, 
With longing, lingering love, caress'd! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 135 



TO H. 



Here rests each warm and cherished thought, 
Apart from life's tumultuous noise; 

No baseless dream, by fancy taught. 
With foolish hopes, and vainer joys : 



Around thy form, around thy fate, 
Life's purest hopes, in gladness twine; 

With thee the lingering heart doth wait 
In joy to know its hopes are thine! 



Now, as I watch thy beaming eyes, 
That heart doth bound, with joy elate, 

To wake the glance which more I prize 
Than all besides of good or great ! 



136 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS 



THINK OF ME. 



[to h.] 

Think of me when gladsome morning- 
Ushers light's returning beams, 

As thou wakest with the dawning, 
And when day's full glory streams! 



Think of me when zephyrs, vagrant, 
O'er the noon-day hour shall play, 

Fitful though their breath, yet fragrant, 
As they kiss the noon of day! 

Think of me when twilight lingers, 
Throned like hope on nature's brow, 

When the evening's shadowy fingers 
Spread the veil that wraps her now ! 



Think of me, if e'er awaking 

When midnight dreams with fancy play, 
Then breathe a prayer — the silence breaking- 

For one who dreameth but of thee ! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 131 



AN APPEAL. 



[to h.] 



Oh! tell me, thou loved one, is hope but a dream 

This lingering heart to beguile? 
To linger a. moment with flattering beam, 



Then leave it uncheered with a smile? 

Has silence encircled thine heart with a spell, 

And left its true feelings unspoken 
To wound this true heart with a silent farewell? 

Oh! would that the silence were broken! 

Yet should, in thy glance, but a welcome arise, 

When meeting to brighten the hour, 
The heart-beaming truth that would flash from thine 
eyes 

Would girdle the silence with power! 

Though mute were thy lips, the silence would speak, 
And joy would the moments employ! 

'T would glow till thy lips the silence would break, 
And crown the full cup of my joy! 



138 LIFE AND HEART XECOBDS. 



SONG. 



I love with a love brightly glowing, 

I love with a love that is true! 
Hope's sweet benediction bestowing 
Its smile o'er a heart overflowing 
With fervor of gladness for you! 

I love thee when thou art beside me, 

I love thee when thou art afar, 
And whatever — whatever — betide me, 
A beacon, to cheer and to guide me, 
Thou still shalt be life's chosen star! 



I love with a love that doth measure 

The days and the years of my youth, 
A love that shall still be my treasure 
When age shall give memory leisure 
To count up the years of my truth! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 139 



A SUMMER EVENING. 



How sad, yet how sweet, is the evening hour, 
When silence a tyranny holds, 

When hope's sweet illusions have gathered the 
flower, 

Ere the bud of the future unfolds ! 
How murmurs the breeze as it tunefully flows 

Over floweret and towering tree, 
As the world's weary heart-throbs are hushed to 
repose 

On the bosom of vanishing day ! 
How sombre the shadows which gracefully move 

'Neath the elms that o'ershaclow my way, 
As the moon spreads her light their branches above, 

With gentle, and beautiful ray! 
Sweet moon! I could gaze on thy calm, gentle, light, 

Till midnight's mysterious hour, 
Still drifting with thoughts that should girdle the 
night 

With fancy's unspeakable power! 



140 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 



A SONG. 



Softly float, 0! gentle breezes, 
O'er the brow of smiling day, 

Through the valley, o'er the upland, 
Waft the genial breath of May! 

Softly smile, awakened sunbeams, 
Warm the breath of playful breeze 

As it dances through the branches 
Of the budding, swelling, trees! 



Wake to life the glowing flowers, 
Wake the thrilling tones of love! 

Music! fill the circling hours! 
Music! charm the listening grove! 



Murmur still, ye tuneful breezes, 
By the stream and woodland gay, 

Through the valley, o'er the upland. 
Waft the genial breath of May! 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. 141 



SONG OF THE BELLS. 



List to the melody rising merrily, 

The woods and the fields with wild notes ring, 
Join in the roundelay, drive sad thoughts away, 

Nature invites thee, merrily to sing! 



Rising, falling, merrily calling. 

We merry bells our melody fling 
There, where the sunbeams play, over the meadows 
gay, 
Where notes of spring birds their sweet music 
bring. 



U2 LIFE AND HEART RECORDS 



Now, in life's morning, welcome the dawning, 
Welcome the light of the redolent day! 

Shroud not the greeting with sorrowful meeting, 
Drive sombre shadows away, far away ! 



Beauty discloses lilies and roses. 
Eyes of soft hazel, and eyes sweetly blue; 

Coral lips glowing, and softly o'erflowing 
With accents e'er breathing in melody true! 



List to the melody, rising merrily, 

Music awaits thee, nature doth sing, 
Join in the roundelay, while o'er the woodlands gay 

We merry bells our melody fling! 

1834. 



LIFE AND HEART RECORDS. i*3 



TO AN INFANT AT PLAY. 



[From the Hinckley Annual, 1S33— written in 1832.] 

Smile, infant, smile on, for care spurns thy breast, 
And pleasure's sweet flowers with thine innocence 
grow ; 

Peace dwells like a dove with thy moments of rest, 
And beauty has planted her wreath on thy brosv! 



Joys varied for thee flow into thy heart, 
Reflecting their smiles on the beautiful scene, 

While the present bright hours are eluding the smart, 
And the future is wrapt in a flowery dream ! 



144 LIFE AND HEA$T RECORDS 



Parental affection now brightens thine eye, 
And the smile of a mother doth banish thy fears, 

But in thy fond bosom dwells many a sigh 
That shall burst o'er the scenes of the swift coming 
years ! 



Smile, infant, smile now, for thy pleasure-crowned 
head 
Will shortly recline on the bosom of care, 
When the heart may but sigh for the joys that are 
fled, 
Or thy sorrows may frown in the lap of despair ! 



Smile, infant, smile on, these pleasures shall fade, 
The swift-winged seasons are sounding their knell, 

Smile while these fond moments in flowers are 
arrayed, 
Too soon shalt thou bid them, forever, farewell! 



^^^^^^^H fW, 



.L'BRARy OF 




